Board of Peace official: We won’t have leverage over Netanyahu until after election

WASHINGTON — The Board of Peace does not currently have leverage to influence Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of next month’s Knesset election, an official from the US-controlled panel overseeing the postwar management of Gaza told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

Netanyahu largely cooperated with the Board of Peace’s efforts over the past year, but that approach ceased completely two months ago, as the election campaign officially began, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity on the sidelines of the MEAD conference in Washington.

The Board of Peace was hoping to begin implementing its proposal for disarming Hamas after the terror group approved it on July 30, but the initiative has stalled due to Netanyahu’s opposition to the plan.

While the Board of Peace would like to pressure Netanyahu more aggressively to fall in line, it has come to the conclusion that the premier has “100% entered campaign mode,” the official argued.

Threats or even actual sanctions would not work in coaxing Netanyahu into cooperating with the Board of Peace, and they would instead actually assist the premier in his campaign by allowing him to claim that he has bucked US pressure to “surrender” to Hamas, the official explained.

After the Board of Peace announced Hamas’s approval of its disarmament plan, Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot used the opportunity to attack Netanyahu, accusing him of acquiescing to an initiative that would leave Hamas in power.

The Board of Peace official adamantly objected to such characterizations of the disarmament proposal, arguing that the plan still gives Israel the right to resume intensive military operations against Hamas if the terror group doesn’t hand over its weapons.

Moreover, the official suggested many of Netanyahu’s rivals who are using the disarmament plan to attack him would themselves back the proposal if they were in power.

“If his rivals are politicizing the issue, we can’t really expect Bibi to operate differently,” a second source familiar with the matter said.

The Board of Peace’s leverage over Israel will return after the election, regardless of who wins, the official from the US-controlled panel insisted.

At that point, whoever is prime minister won’t want to pay the price of blocking a US-led initiative with such widespread international backing, the official claimed.

In the meantime, the official noted that the board is still able to advance other elements of its 20-point plan to rebuild Gaza, including repairing water and sanitation infrastructure as well as establishing a new education system for the Strip.

The Board of Peace official also stressed that Hamas, too, is operating in ways that go against the disarmament proposal by continuing to deploy gunmen in the streets of Gaza, in shows of force that have defied requests from Middle East mediating countries.

Once the election campaign is over, the national interest will return to the forefront of the premier’s decision-making, the official said, suggesting that may not currently be the case.

“Israel’s current policy is a pre-October 7 policy of trying to keep Hamas in power,” the official said, arguing that by not allowing for the advancement of the board’s disarmament plan while also not launching an operation to try and defeat the terror group, Netanyahu is effectively prolonging its reign in Gaza.

A second Board of Peace official highlighted Netanyahu’s refusal to allow thousands of recruits to a new Palestinian police force to leave Gaza for training in Egypt, even though they had already cleared Israeli vetting to ensure that they’re not tied to Hamas.

“The holdup actually prolongs the existence in Gaza of Hamas police armed with AK-47s,” the Board of Peace official said.